Gooaaaal

May 21, 2010 8:39 AM

SLYT: Write The Future - A three minute long Nike World Cup ad
posted by AceRock (39 comments total)

This is like a missing scene from Southland Tales.*

* not a compliment
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:46 AM on May 21, 2010

Oh, yeah!
posted by Mental Wimp at 8:53 AM on May 21, 2010

Interestingly one of the stars featured, Ronaldinho, won't even be at the World Cup.
posted by proj at 8:54 AM on May 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

I feel like I need an annotated version of this, being an Ignorant American.
posted by lunasol at 9:05 AM on May 21, 2010

Lunasol: they want you to buy some shoes.
posted by DreamerFi at 9:34 AM on May 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

Focus for the win
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:41 AM on May 21, 2010

I feel like I need an annotated version of this, being an Ignorant American.

Well 0.45 to 1:45 is "Rooney! Rooney! ENG-GER-LAND! ENG-GER-LAND!"... that's all you need to know really...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:48 AM on May 21, 2010

Very cool, but it lacked fake dives.
posted by vito90 at 9:49 AM on May 21, 2010

That was great.
posted by eyeballkid at 10:11 AM on May 21, 2010

I feel like I need an annotated version of this, being an Ignorant American.

Being an Ignorant American myself, the writeup included with the copy at Vimeo helped immensely.
posted by dforemsky at 10:41 AM on May 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Where's Messi??
posted by moons in june at 11:08 AM on May 21, 2010

I feel like I need an annotated version of this, being an Ignorant American.
posted by lunasol at 12:05 PM on May 21

Annotated version for ignorant Americans: Brazilian chicks are hot (2:08).
posted by Pastabagel at 11:18 AM on May 21, 2010

Where's Messi??
In Argentina, probably.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 11:21 AM on May 21, 2010

Real answer: he's sponsored by Adidas, and this is a Nike commercial.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 11:21 AM on May 21, 2010

In the future I write, a mack truck suddenly roars into frame and runs over Cristiano Ronaldo, forever wiping that pretty-boy smirk right off his face.
posted by dnesan at 11:30 AM on May 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

When they showed the statue of him being unveiled, I imagined a future in which that was pulled down by tanks and people beat it with shoes.
posted by proj at 11:37 AM on May 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

So excited. But where was Park Ji-Sung?

Red Devils!
posted by 256 at 11:43 AM on May 21, 2010

All Whites!!!!
posted by Mental Wimp at 11:52 AM on May 21, 2010

Real answer: he's sponsored by Adidas , and this is a Nike commercial.

Oh right. I got excited about the football and forgot they were selling me shoes.
posted by moons in june at 12:17 PM on May 21, 2010

Real answer: he's sponsored by Adidas , and this is a Nike commercial.

Oh right. I got excited about the football and forgot they were selling me shoes.

Yet you can clearly see the Umbro logos on the England kit.
posted by L'OM at 12:23 PM on May 21, 2010

Real answer: he's sponsored by Adidas , and this is a Nike commercial.

Oh right. I got excited about the football and forgot they were selling me shoes.

Yet you can clearly see the Umbro logos on the England kit.

On 23 October 2007, it was announced Umbro had agreed to be bought by Nike in a deal worth £285 million ($580 million), the equivalent of 193p per share. The Umbro board recommended to its shareholders they vote in favour of the approach as it offered a very competitive price for the business. Umbro's share price at the time of the offer was close to 130p.[2] The deal was approved by regulators in December 2007 and concluded in February 2008.
posted by kmz at 12:37 PM on May 21, 2010

Umbro is a subsidiary of Nike now. (paragraph about the Nike/Umbro/USL/NASL/USSF clusterfuck deleted)
posted by acid freaking on the kitty at 12:41 PM on May 21, 2010

AAAAAAAAH I've got World Cup fever and the only cure is more World Cup!

Point: Metafilter is obviously for Brazil, as the site's bedecked in their team colors. Discuss.
posted by fiercecupcake at 1:15 PM on May 21, 2010

Oh man, I hate liking advertising this much, but it was well done.
posted by BrotherCaine at 1:17 PM on May 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm impressed by how understated it is; I can't recall seeing a single Nike logo prominently displayed in the whole thing except for of course the title-card bookends. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone in the thing is wearing Nike gear, but it's not evident; no close-up shots of a Nike shoe slowly kicking a ball or a single drop of sweat falling on a Nike-branded jersey or any of the hideously obvious stuff I was expecting.

This is the sort of thing that makes brand managers sweat bullets: the idea is to sell yourself as a sincere enthusiast about the sport, with the idea that people will think that Nike is the "real" soccer shoe and if you love soccer Nike is a good choice.

But shoving your brand out there like a last-chance dairy product marked down 50% at the grocer's just makes you look cheap and annoying.

So you undersell: present a three-minute movie about the kind of stakes that accompany every second of high-profile play, make it fun, make it funny, make it engaging and don't act like a carnival barker.

And then lie awake for six months wondering if anyone is going to remember it as a Nike spot, and not as something for insoles or Astroturf or a brand of soccer balls.

So now you need to make something so good people will not only remember it, but remember who made it. It's pretty much the highest-stakes move you can make in advertising: pure equity, almost no brand.

I'm honestly surprised that they went for it -- this is the kind of thing that usually meets death by committee in the planning stages. "Pure equity" is kind of a dying notion in the ad world these days, as the pendulum swings back to crass and simple (or even further out to creepy and viral).
posted by Shepherd at 1:44 PM on May 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

Point: Metafilter is obviously for Brazil, as the site's bedecked in their team colors. Discuss.

Brazil is everybody's second favourite team, so it makes sense that Metafilter would end up rooting for Brazil in that regard.

That having been said GO BAFANA BAFANA
posted by mightygodking at 1:45 PM on May 21, 2010

Nike do these kind of adverts really well. I'm loving Homer Simpson getting nutmegged by Ronaldo.
posted by uk_giffo at 1:53 PM on May 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Before the last World Cup, Clint Dempsey made a music video for NIKE. It was filmed partially in his hometown of Nacogdoches, Texas, and features Houston rapper Big Hawk (RIP). Seemed like a good thread to mention it.
posted by mcdoublewide at 1:58 PM on May 21, 2010

So excited. But where was Park Ji-Sung?

Busy dreaming of becoming the first president of the Reunified Republic of Korea. That is if we don't have war by next Tuesday.
posted by shortfuse at 3:11 PM on May 21, 2010

And I almost thought they wouldn't be able to top Guy Ritchie's video from a couple years ago...
posted by IAmDrWorm at 4:56 PM on May 21, 2010

That was confusing. I've seen soccer before. It wasn't like that commercial at all.
posted by Wayman Tisdale at 7:46 PM on May 21, 2010

You guys are so critical. That was epic.
posted by aesacus at 12:11 AM on May 22, 2010

I can't recall seeing a single Nike logo prominently displayed in the whole thing except for of course the title-card bookends

I absolutely love the ad (and agree with aesacus), but it's a testament to their creative powers if you don't think there are any Swooshs. Go back and watch the Ronaldo segment (if your stomach can stand it). There are a couple of seconds that are just his boots.
posted by yerfatma at 5:43 AM on May 22, 2010

And all the ads in the stadium are Nike.
posted by yerfatma at 5:45 AM on May 22, 2010

Being an Ignorant American myself, the writeup included with the copy at Vimeo helped immensely.


Yep, that pretty much did the trick. Thanks!
posted by lunasol at 6:43 AM on May 22, 2010

Italics FAIL.
posted by lunasol at 6:44 AM on May 22, 2010

Cristiano Ronaldo on the cover of Vanity Fair. Yum.

The World Cup’s Stars Wear Their Flags—And Little Else—For Annie Leibovitz.
posted by ericb at 4:04 PM on May 22, 2010

It is a mark of where advertising budgets are these days that even Oscar-nominated directors can be persuaded to take a break from their day jobs to help flog sportswear. Alejandro González Iñárritu, previously responsible for Babel, Amores Perros and 21 Grams is unlikely to look back on Nike's new Write the Future advert as one of the high points of his career, but he can at least be satisfied that it is among the better World Cup offerings to hit our screens so far. Not that the competition has been stiff, mind.

...

But whilst there are neat touches the advert does fall some way short of Nike's previous best efforts. It has neither the camp brilliance of Eric Cantona's "au revoir" before firing a shot through a devil's stomach, nor the simple lightheartedness of Brazil's footballers enjoying a kickabout in an airport terminal. It doesn't even have Cantona talking nonsense on a boat that's about to sink.

posted by zarq at 8:51 PM on May 22, 2010

Ok, I rarely say this: that was an awesome ad.
posted by jcruelty at 9:36 PM on May 22, 2010